Swiatek inspires Poland to United Cup quarter-finals
Iga Swiatek earned two wins for the Poles, defeating Czechia’s Karolina Muchova in singles before pairing up with Hubert Hurkacz to claim the mixed-doubles decider
Antoine Couvercelle/Panoramic
Poland won 2-1 against Czechia in a Group B meeting at the 2025 United Cup on Wednesday (January 1) in Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena.
World No 2 Iga Swiatek made two winning contributions to Poland’s victory, defeating Czechia’s Karolina Muchova 6-3, 6-4 in the women’s singles first and later paired up with Hubert Hurkacz to claim the mixed-doubles decider.
“Honestly I was sure they were going to play amazing tennis,” Swiatek said after overcoming Muchova and Tomas Machac 7-6 (3), 6-3 in mixed-doubles alongside Hurkacz. “Because they have always great teams in doubles and mixed doubles. They are kind of raised that way. But I knew that we have the game to win it.
“For sure we were leading from the beginning. In the first set it got tight at the end, but I kind of felt that we were leading anyway so in the tie-break we just used that. In the end it seemed that we had everything under control.”
Poland finish atop Group B
Hurkcaz failed to start the proceedings for Poland on a positive note as he lost to Machac 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 in the men’s singles match-up.
Swiatek, however, turned it around for her nation. She took out Muchova but not without a challenge, as the Czech broke her twice, creating seven break-point opportunities in total. The five-time Grand Slam champion managed to bring the encounter to a close after nearly two hours of tussling, with two aces and four break-point conversions.
The win meant Poland won Group B, having defeated Norway 2-1 earlier.
